Metadata Editing Dilemma

I bought a boxed set entitled “Karajan Sibelius Complete Recordings on Deutsche
The ripping software wants to name all five CDs in the set like this:

But that loses the identify of the individual CDs. For example, the first one is Symohonie Nr.4 Schwan Von Tuanela and has some completely individual cover art…it seems obvious to name them individually but I then lose all the information about them being part of a boxed set. I can’t think of any way of including the box set identification.

BTW, I can’t see anything I’ve written here. It is overlaid by the +Create Topic and a whole paragraph disappears behind it. This can’t possibly be the way the editor is supposed to work, I’ve had to write this message elsewhere and sort of guess where to paste any additions. This looks like a support issue. It looks like this:

click the X-mark in the blue colored overlay…

Hello Echolane,

Personally I adopted this tagging scheme for my boxsets:

  • I choose a short name to identity the boxset, e.g. “Karajan DG60”
  • Each CD or subset of CDs in the boxset will be tagged as an album
  • Each album will be named with the boxset’s short name as a prefix followed by an “index” indicated the CD number range in the boxset , e.g. “Karajan DG60 01 xxx”, “Karajan DG60 01-03 yyy”
  • Each track in each album is also numbered with the CD number as the prefix, e.g. 0305 for disc 3 track number 5


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I’ve posted about this prior but I have a tedious but, in most cases, effective classical CD box set ripping/tagging approach.

I start with the metadata outside of whatever ripping app I’m using. For example, I’ll start with AllMusic for artist label, discs, date.

When the ripping app, either XLD, dbPoweramp or Apple Music, populates the metadata, I usually remove artist and album info unless, for some reason, it matches. I leave track metadata intact.

I meticulously make sure each CD is tagged as # of #. Each disc, of course, gets its own folder.

Once all the CDs are ripped, I quickly run a batch script to remove any incompatible characters in track file names (a common problem with opera CDs in my experience).

I move over to an app called Tag - a primitive metadata editor. I’ll load all the ripped discs folders at once and batch tag the box set’s artist, album artist, title, genre, date.

Next, and here’s where the tedium really hits, I load each disc folder into the editor to confirm each disc is numbered correctly.

Finally, I move the ripped box over to a NAS and let Roon scan. So far, this has always produced excellent results in Roon.

Thanks. I thought that would post the topic without any content.

Thanks, will give this a try and see if it seems to fit in with my routine, I rip in my Naim Uniti Core which I invested in before I knew of Roon. Then I transfer the ripped file and attached metadata to Roon.

Very well thought out! I wish I could consider adopting same, but I struggle with pain when sitting so I stay away from desktop editing except as a last resort and stick with my tablet, an iPad. I wish the iOS editor for Roon would be better. I find it quite limiting, But I manage. I first rip with my Naim Uniti Core, which I acquired before I knew about Roon. I soon supplanted it with a Roon Nucleus and I do final editing in Roon. I will have to make do by adding additional information to the Title.

Merry Xmas …

Beware splitting individual CDs from boxes Roon will probably not ID them whereas it will ID the box

You may lose Roon’s Metadata and composition etc

A box is a box leave it as one and let Roon do the work

Many boxes of experience…

I don’t have enough experience with boxes to contradict. My experiences may be somewhat different because I rip first with the Naim Uniti Core. I do it individually one CD at a time from the box. When I’m done I have 5 or 10 individual albums or how ever many CDs were in the box. If the box has the same art work on each CD, the problem takes care of itself as it is obvious they are together. I struggle for a good solution when each CD has its own cover art. I’ve been treating them as individual CDs. I don’t have a consistent method defined. So far when I transfer my rips to Roon, they remain as I’ve defined them with Naim’s metadata.

Yes it’s true.

I actually don’t like the way Roon identifies / organizes albums etc… Also I don’t like to depend on Roon for tags - I want the tags to be incorporated into the music files themselves, so that I can use them with other players than Roon (such as Apple Music and Audirvāna …) - I can keep the same tags and use the same album / boxset organization scheme in those as well.

I set the import settings like this in Roon in order to use the tags in the music files rather than the ones assumed by Roon:

There are several detailed threads on box sets you may wish to peruse

Roon is at the mercy of its 3rd party Metadata suppliers and has little control.

Many boxes consist of albums with extras added the extras make the CD not recognized as the original CD hence splitting is a nightmare